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Nilufer Kafescioglu

Associate Professor

Nilufer Kafescioglu received her BA in Psychology from Ege University in 1997. After receiving her MA in Clinical Psychology from University of Indianapolis in 2002, she received her PhD in Marriage and Family Therapy from Purdue University in 2008. She also has a minor in Women’s Studies from Purdue University. Her research focuses on the role of family functioning in the development and treatment of emotional and behavioral problems of children and adults. In her research with couples she has utilized an attachment theory perspective and focused on the role of couples relationship on coping with chronic illness and the link between relationship distress and couple communication patterns. In her research with children, she has focused on effective family therapy interventions for children at risk for emotional and behavioral problems.

Gizem Arikan

Assistant Professor

Gizem Arikan completed her Bachelor of Science degrees in Psychology and Philosphy (Double Major) at the Middle East Technical University, Ankara in 2005. In 2007, she obtained her Clinical Psychology Master of Science degree from the same university. She was funded by the Overseas Research Students Award Scheme (ORSAS) and the University of Southampton, School of Psychology studentship for her PhD in 2007. Gizem Arikan received her PhD from the University of Southampton in 2011 and she currently works as a post-doctoral research fellow at the Centre for Research on Self and Identity, School of Psychology, University of Southampton. She worked as a part-time lecturer at the University of Winchester and Royal South Hants Hospital. Her research interests are attachment, oxytocin and psychophysiology, posttraumatic stress disorder, posttraumatic growth, coping styles, and emotion regulation. She joined the Department of Psychology at Ozyegin University in 2013.

Asiye Kumru

Associate Professor

Asiye Kumru obtained her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2002. Her main research interests are children’s and teenagers’ positive social and ethical development, gender socialization, socio-emotional development of preschoolers and parental etnotheories. Prof. Kumru explores the effects of individual, family and environmental factors and socialization experiences in different environments such as family and school on preschoolers’ and school age children’s cognitive, socio-emotional and positive social development till early adolescence.

Contact

Tel: +90-216-564-9528

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Tel: +90-216-564-9526

Contact

Tel: +90-216-564-9211

Selenga Gurmen

Assistant Professor

Dr. Selenga Gürmen graduated summa cum laude from Bogazici University with a BA in Psychology in 2010. She obtained her Masters and PhD in in Marriage and Family therapy from University of Connecticut in 2012 and 2015, respectively. Her research on Marriage and Family Therapy field focuses mostly on issues around co-parenting, divorce, and high-conflict therapy. Currently, she aims to understand extended family relationships after divorce and extended family’s supportive role on co-parenting among divorced families. In light of the findings from her research, Dr. Gürmen also develops various therapy modalities and parent education programs that target decreased conflict and increased cooperation among high-conflict co-parents. Dr. Gürmen also engaged in several studies that examine several tenets of Interpersonal Acceptance-Rejection Theory (IPARTheory) and she is actively involved in translations and adaptation of measures of IPARTheory.

Ozlem Bekar

Assistant Professor

Dr. Bekar’s research focuses on mentalization/reflective functioning and its applications in developmental psychopathology and clinical psychology. Specifically, she studies the links between mentalization skills (of children and parents), parenting stress, and children’s social, emotional and behavioral functioning in clinical and non-clinical populations. In this aim, she has developed the Coding System for Mental State Talk in Narratives (CS-MST) with Drs. Howard Steele and Miriam Steele at the Center for Attachment Research at the New School. In addition, Dr. Bekar conducts research on the effectiveness of an onsite, integrated consultation and mental health services program for at-risk children and their families. Finally, Dr. Bekar studies psychotherapy processes in non-directive, psychodynamically-oriented play therapy groups for preschoolers, namely Peer Play Psychotherapy.

Thomas Ledermann

International Scholar

I am a psychologist, having received my Ph.D. from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. My research is focused on statistical methods for the analysis of data from small groups, such as couples and families, the assessment of mediation and moderation processes, and the analysis of longitudinal data. Other research interests are programming using R and interpersonal relationships and relationship functioning. I serve as a consulting editor for the Journal of Family Psychology.

Contact

Tel: +90-216-564-9654

Contact

Tel: +90-216-564-9654

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Hasan Alp Aytuglu

Research Assistant

Alp Aytuglu graduated from Bilkent University department of philosophy in 2014. While studying at Bilkent University, he wrote his senior thesis on Folk Psychology, it combines philosophy of mind and developmental, social, cognitive psychology. In 2013 he completed 6-month exchange programme (Erasmus) at Tilburg University, the Netherlands. In 2014 he got accepted to Applied Developmental Psychology Master’s Program at Ozyegin University. He is interested in theory of mind, parenting across cultures, emotional readiness for fatherhood, and father-child attachment.

Pınar Şengül

Research Assistant

Pınar Sengul studied Psychology at Yeditepe University and graduated in 2014. She worked as an intern at Guidance and Counseling Department of Doga Colleges, Tomurcuk Special Education and Rehabilitation Center and Child and Adolescence Psychiatry Unit of Yeditepe University Hospital. She presented her research named “The Impact of Neuroticism, Perfectionism, and Academic Orientation on Test Anxiety of College Students” in 19th National Congress of Psychology Students in Samsun. She continues her Master’s education in Applied Developmental Psychology program of Ozyegin University and works as a Research Assistant at the same department. Her research areas are family and peer relationships and emotion socialization strategies during adolescence period.

Deniz Bayel Uğural

Research Assistant

Deniz Bayel Uğural received her B.A. degree in Psychology from Boğaziçi University in 2000. She began her career in Corporate Communications Department at Turkcell. She joined Doğuş Holding in 2006 and served as the Corporate Communications Executive Vice President. In 2015, she started Applied Developmental Psychology Graduate Program at Özyeğin University. She participated in Circle of Security (CSO) Parenting Traning Program in 2016 and became a Registered COS Parent Facilitator. She is now working as a research assistant in Relationship Research Lab at Özyeğin University. Her areas of interest are, “socio-emotional development during childhood and adolescence, child-parent relationships, work-family balance and social policies regarding family and children”.

Contact

Tel: +90-216-564-9654

Contact

Tel: +90-216-564-9654

Contact

Tel: +90-216-564-9654

Ebra Uraloğlu

Research Assistant

Ebra Uraloglu received her bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Political Science & Public Administaration (double major) in 2014. During her undergraduate years, Ebra completed internships in various kindergartens, psychological guidance centers, and Bülent Ecevit University Child and Adolescent Psychiarty Clinic. After graduation Ebra worked at a caring centre for adults with disabilities and an special education and rehabilitation centre at Yalova. In 2015, Ebra started her Master’s degree in Applied Developmental Psychology at Ozyegin University. Her research interests include family and peer relationships, parental attitudes and moral development in adolescence.

Ece Ergün

Research Assistant

Ece Ergün completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology in 2014 at Boğaziçi University. Between September 2012 and December 2012, she studied at University of Kent, UK as an Erasmus exchange student. Since September 2014, she pursues her Master’s education in Clinical Psychology at İstanbul Bilgi University. Her research interests are attachment and reflective functioning/mentalization. Ece works as a research assistant for the Relationship Research Laboratory project on improving mother-child attachment relationship.

Deniz Hazal Karabulut

Research Assistant

Deniz Hazal Karabulut studied Psychology at Bilkent University and graduated in 2016. She wrote her thesis on mother-infant relationships at Bilkent University. In 2016, she enrolled to the Applied Developmental psychology Master’s program of Ozyegin University. She is particularly interested in social and emotional development of infants, mother-infant relations and attachment. She is currently working as a research assistant in Relationship Research Laboratory on a project which aims to improve mother-infant attachment.

Contact

Tel: +90-216-564-9654

Contact

Tel: +90-216-564-9654

Contact

Tel: +90-216-564-9654

Şeyda Yazıcı

Research Assistant

Şeyda Yazıcı completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology at Ozyegin University in 2016. While studying at Ozyegin University, she took part in the study titled “Factors Influencing the Marital Relationship in the First Years of Marriage” as an observation coder. Currently, Şeyda is working toward her master’s in Couple and Family Therapy Program at Ozyegin University. She is interested in couple’s communication patterns, couple attachment and role of depression on marital satisfaction.

Kübra Akar

Research Assistant

Kübra Akar graduated from Özyeğin University, department of Psychology in 2016. During her undergraduate years, she worked on different projects as an assistant and tester, and as an intern at Guidance and Counseling Department of Doğa Colleges. She took part in the Project that examines factors influencing the marital relationship in the first year of marriage as observation coder. Currently, she is graduate student at Özyeğin University Couple and Family Therapy program with thesis.